If you own a drone, you’re going to crash it. It’s just a fact of piloting these unmanned aircraft. Luckily, if you own a drone made by DJI, a crash won’t hurt your wallet, thanks to the company’s new protection plan.
The service, called DJI Care, lets drone owners add six or 12 months of insurance to their pricy UAV purchase.
DJI Care will cost between $99 and $699, depending on the drone to which it’s paired and the length of the coverage. The plans will cover repairs up to the price paid for the drone, with no limits on the number of repair jobs. The protection ends once the contract term expires or the repairs hit the coverage cap.
For the time being, DJI is offering the protection plan on only part of its lineup. The Phantom 3 Standard, Phantom 3 4K, Phantom 3 Advanced, Phantom 3 Professional, and Inspire 1 are all covered. Owners of older models, like the popular Phantom 2, will have to fly more cautiously.
DJI is already by far the most popular drone manufacturer, with more than $1 billion in sales in 2015. It owns 70 percent of the consumer drone market in the United States. With the DJI Care plan, it hopes to keep those drones in the air for a bit longer—and maybe create some return customers.
The DJI Care plan will be available initially to customers in the United States, parts of Europe, and Mainland China.
H/T TechCrunch | Photo via DFSB DE/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)